AMSR2 Unified L3 Daily 25 km Brightness Temperature & Sea Ice Concentration Polar Grids V4

NASA's NRT AMSR2 Unified L3 Daily 25 km Brightness Temperature & Sea Ice Concentration Polar Grids, Version 4 provides near real-time global passive microwave measurements. This Level-3 gridded product includes brightness temperatures at frequencies from 6.9 through 89.0 GHz and sea ice concentrations, mapped to a polar stereographic grid at 25 km spatial resolution. Data are generated within 3 hours of observation by the LANCE system for operational monitoring, with science-quality versions available from NSIDC.

Use Cases

• Monitoring daily sea ice concentration changes based on passive microwave brightness temperatures.
• Analyzing polar region brightness temperature trends across multiple microwave frequencies (6.9-89.0 GHz).
• Providing near real-time input for weather and ocean forecasting models.
• Comparing ascending-pass, descending-pass, and daily average geophysical parameters.

Strengths

• Data latency is within 3 hours of observation, supporting operational use.
• Uses the AMSR-U2 algorithm, consistent with the standard science-quality product from NSIDC.
• Provides global coverage mapped to a consistent 25 km polar stereographic grid.
• Dataset is hosted on multiple authoritative platforms (Data.gov, NASA Earthdata), indicating established use.

Limitations

• Metadata for specific column names, row counts, and file sizes is not provided in the sources.
• The license is listed as 'other-license-specified' without explicit details.
• This is a near real-time product; users requiring the highest calibration accuracy are directed to the science-quality version.

Provenance

Source

Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) AMSR2 instrument on the GCOM-W1 satellite, processed by NASA's Land Atmosphere Near real-time Capability for EOS (LANCE).

Collection Method

Satellite passive microwave measurements processed with the AMSR-U2 algorithm.

Freshness

Last updated on 2026-04-09 according to Data.gov.

Geography

Global, with data mapped to polar stereographic grids.